DARREN BENT has revealed he received a cold call from Neil Lennon after the former England striker's comment on Steven Gerrard and Rangers.
The ex-Aston Villa forward turned pundit opened up on a call "out the blue" from the former Celtic boss after his comments in an opinion column.
Bent - who revealed the story on talkSPORT - had stated he would rather play for Gerrard at Rangers than Lennon at Celtic.
In the Football Insider piece, Bent branded Lennon an "old-school manager" and insisted he'd rather play for Gerrard "any day of the week".
He commented: “First of all you look at the managers.
"Now I’d rather go and play for a Steven Gerrard over Neil Lennon any day of the week because he’s (Lennon) old school."
Bent hadn't given much thought to the comments but revealed he was called by Lennon the next day after a pal had given Lennon his number.
Recalling the incident on talkSPORT, when quizzed on being questioned over his punditry, Bent said: "The funniest one was Neil Lennon. He wasn't my friend, I never knew him.
"I used to do a football column called the Football Insider and I spoke about Neil Lennon.
"They asked me a question 'Who would I rather play under, Steven Gerrard when he was at Rangers or Neil Lennon?'.
“They asked me if I’d rather play under Gerrard (Rangers) or Lennon (Celtic).”
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) September 22, 2022
“Then Neil Lennon called me up!” 😳
Darren Bent reveals Neil Lennon once rang him, after he spoke about him publicly. 😅 pic.twitter.com/cOHSb4mLmP
"And I basically just said Steven Gerrard probably because he is a young, fresh manager, I've played with Steven Gerrard, I know him and something about Neil Lennon.
"I think there was a bit of commotion at the time or something that I said.
"The next day someone was like 'Aw Benty, Neil Lennon said can he have your number?'.
"I went, 'Yeah no worries at all, not a problem whatsoever'.
"He (Lennon) calls me up, doesn't text me, calls me. He said 'I just want to clarify some of the things you said'.
"So I just said exactly what I thought, but to be fair after that I then had to work with him on Soccer Saturday a couple times.
"Honestly, the nicest guy to the point where I felt I wish I hadn't said that now."
Asked if he had spoken to Lennon before the call, he added: "Never, he phoned me out the blue."
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